Mistakenly Yours

lodged in Lily's thro

y and someone else's regret-and stared at the prescription bottle Jasper had pressed into her palm before she'd fled the coffee shop. Prem

to prove she didn't need his money, his co

allowed one and hat

. Another message from Jaspe

o discuss

see Dr. Morrison at Pres

me won't chang

just practical. Probably both. The distinction didn't matter when you were eight weeks

e a kitchen-displaying her blog's analytics. Down seventeen percent. Her last post about the fairy chimneys in Cappadocia had

freedom when you were about to be responsible for

-colored skin, the same dark eyes that her mother always said held too much stubbornness and not enough sense. Still the same girl wh

rl was going to be

ts now-familiar companion:

through the apartmen

knew-*knew*-before she even

ugh the ancient speaker. "The kind with extra veget

aw

il

rtment with prenatal vitamins and unsolicited medical advice a

unctuated only by static and some

'm not l

lose, how to walk away, how to accept that some things couldn't

bbed th

d private trainers and Pelotons and functional cardiovascular systems. She'd barely opened the door before he was

k tired,

ation on fetal development." She crossed her arms. "Please

face-amusement, maybe, or pai

r lips twitch. She stepped back.

hwick walkup. His gaze swept the studio: the futon that doubled as her couch, the collage of photographs from forty-t

s the suble

h to

s not

imes it had worn grooves in her brain. But they sounded hollow now, unconvincing. "

ace her fully. "Because that's not negotiable. N

mples. "Stop turning this into a business

r b

landed lik

e fear. "You think I want to be the guy who demands involvement? Who shows up with vitamins and Thai

her's death-overwork, exhaustion, a single parent's breaking poi

ned?" she a

stead she was cleaning office buildings at midnight and waitressing on weekends and slowly killing herself because one man decided fatherhood was too in

d. Swallo

"So I could prove I wasn't like him. And now you're asking me to walk away from my

en them, sharp and accu

t her phone erupted with a ringtone

mo

now about th

nitely* couldn't know

ger hovering over decline,

it," h

spe

whatever you're running

again, insisten

ans

ough the speaker. "I need you to come h

orld

on't have

other said. "And he